Product Development in a Startup

Talk given at the Paris Founder Institute on November 26th, 2014.

1. Paris Founder Institute — 26 Novembre 2014 Ronan Amicel @amicel Product Development in a Startup
2. Ronan Amicel 10+ years with startups Flying Sensei @ Pocket Sensei Hacker in Residence @ The Family
3. Easy, no?
4. Recipe for Product Success 1. Come up with a killer idea 2. Write detailed specs and mockups 3. Hire team or outsource to development shop 4. Get an awesome product!
5. Recipe for Product Success 1. Come up with a killer idea 2. Write detailed specs and mockups 3. Hire team or outsource to development shop 4. Get an awesome product! NOT
6. Your Challenges 1. Build the right product 2. Build your product right
7. Build the
 Right Product
8. Your Biggest Risk Build something that
 nobody wants
9. Love the Problem,
 not the Solution • Focus on really understanding: — The Problem — The Customer • Tools: — Customer Development — Lean Startup ♥︎
10. The Solution is a Path MVP 2 MVP 3 MVP 1
11. Iterate • Release early – start learning ASAP! • Release often – maximize the number of cycles through the loop Build Measure Learn
12. Minimum Viable Product • Minimal is NOT crappy • Focus on solving one aspect of the problem for a single group of people • Pick a minimal core set of features • Remove features • Remove more features
13. Source : http://blog.fastmonkeys.com/
14. Build your
 Product Right
15. Culture Team Product
16. Ideal Situation • Collaboration between tech & business • Product leadership • Experienced developers
17. Tech-Business Collaboration • Split work in small chunks — Minimum Marketable Feature — User Stories • Prioritize backlog based on business value — use Impact Mapping — define goals and metrics
18. Product Leadership • Have someone with strong product sense on the team • Translate understanding of customer problems into a great user experience • Making product decisions = saying no
19. Experienced Developers
20. Experienced Developers Bad Developer Sure, I can do it!
 (except not)
21. Experienced Developers Bad Developer Sure, I can do it!
 (except not) Good Developer Sure, I can do it!
22. Experienced Developers Bad Developer Sure, I can do it!
 (except not) Good Developer Sure, I can do it! Experienced Developer Hmm, I can reuse this library
23. Experienced Developers Bad Developer Sure, I can do it!
 (except not) Good Developer Sure, I can do it! Experienced Developer Hmm, I can reuse this library Very Experienced Developer Actually, we don’t need this
24. Hiring Good, Available,
 and Cheap?
25. But hiring is tough! • You don’t have much money • You don’t have much time • You don’t have much experience • You don’t know many people
26. So, here’s Plan B • Do whatever you can to build a crappy throwaway MVP: — learn to code — go to hackathons — hire someone • Get the ball rolling!
27. Typical Problems • The team doesn’t ship • Quality issues • New features take longer and longer
28. The Team Doesn’t Ship • Remove non-working and half-finished features, find a working core • Aggressively trim the backlog • Start releasing ASAP at least internally (shipping != launching)
29. Quality issues • Managing Quality — Feature vs. experiment — Understand technical debt — Unit tests and code review can help
30. Technology
31. Python, Ruby, Node.js ? Use whatever the team
 knows best
 and is more productive with.
32. Tools • Use source control (e.g. git) • Automate deployment • Automate tests
33. Wait ! You probably don’t need
 to build anything yet!
34. Low Fidelity MVPs • Interviews (like, talking to people!) • Paper prototypes • Mockups (Balsamiq, PowerPoint, KeyNote...) • Landing pages, surveys, videos...
35. Do Things that Don’t Scale • “Concierge” MVP — Solve the problem by doing things manually • “Wizard of Oz” MVP — Do things manually behind the curtain (app, website...)
36. Key Takeaways • Love the problem, not the solution • Start small and iterate • Balance speed and quality • Don’t build it yet
37. Questions?